US human rights abuses

Is the UN review an opportunity for Washington to defend its human rights record?

The US has, for the first time, faced the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva over accusations of human rights violations.

The council's first review of the US' human rights record was part of a gradual examination of the performance of all 192 UN members over a four-year period known as the Universal Periodical Review.

Is it an opportunity for Washington to defend its human rights record, or an opportunity for others to shatter the US' public commitment to international human rights? Is Washington having second thoughts about remaining on the council?

Joining the programme are Scott Horton, a New York attorney and contributing editor of Harper's Magazine, Nile Gardiner, the director of the Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, and Cristina Finch, the government relations director for Amnesty Internnational, US.